The Wedding CEO: Photography Podcast

197. Rebrand Series: Pricing, Psychology, and Websites, oh my!

• Alora Rachelle • Episode 197

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In this episode of the Rebrand Diary series, Alora provides an update on her rebrand process.

00:00 Introduction and Time Flying

00:59 Creating a Custom Font

02:09 Personal Branding and Confidence

03:44 Pricing Strategies and Success

08:58 Balancing Motherhood and Business

11:48 Community and Platform Changes

13:26 Upcoming Masterclass and Final Thoughts

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Hello and welcome or welcome back to the rebrand diary series, where I am just walking you through what it's like going through a rebrand, going through my own process and how it's been going, and I have to tell you, time is flying. How is it March? I remember just planning out January and I cannot be the only person who thinks this. Like I told somebody, I was like, I just can't believe it's March. And she's like, this winter has been so long. And I'm like, mm. We have like a storm in a half. Like for Michigan, I'm used to like negative 13. I'm used to like constant ice back and forth. Tornadoes. No, I'm just kidding. But I mean, it's just more extreme weather and like now I have birds singing outside my window. The geese have come back from Florida probably, and spring is almost here. I mean, in a couple of weeks it will officially be spring. And that is just absolutely wild to me. So. What have I been up to? I know I've mentioned in the previous episode, and if you follow me on Instagram stories and you'll see that I have been actually working on getting my handwriting as a font, thanks to you guys who have mentioned it in my dms. And so it happened and we just finalized actually the font and it took about six. Rounds of fully writing out the alphabet, the numbers, lots and lots of ligatures. Whether it's like upright, slanted, close together, tied up thicker, thinner, it was a whole thing, but. Me and my brand designer Madeline, are moving very quickly. I would just go on my iPad, she'd send me an email. I would refine it. Like we probably did that actually in a day or two. But it was technically would be more intensive for somebody else who's a little bit more, how do I put this? Slower paced. But we are very ambitious and we're getting things going. Actually, I think we're almost done. Like she got a couple more. Icons and elements to wrap up and I just selected my new logo my program logos, and she's actually adding my handwriting to one of them, or both of them. We'll see. We're really just infusing as much personal branding as I can, but also just because I feel like. This rebrand is so aligned with everything that I have built from 12 years of being a wedding photographer and finally arriving in that identity, and now I'm stepping back into that identity, but as a 34, almost 30 5-year-old in April, and I feel like I'm in this confidence era. I'm so unabashed, I'm so bold, and just owning into what I had created and everything that I accomplished and everything that I did, and really talking about my story. I think a lot of us don't like to talk about our beginner story, how we got here, how, we got to, basically the whole storyline of the hero's journey, starting the journey, meeting a mentor, going along the path or going backwards, going forwards, and finally reaching success. And I think all of that kind of stems from really just understanding yourself, if you don't understand yourself, why you do this, who you are, really just embodying that or how you serve your couples, your clients, what have you. That is all tied into your brand. It can be tied into your brand visuals and it can also be tied into your brand world. And everything that you put out there can all stem from your story. Your why and your unique take on things. And so really just leaning into like my personality and how I am different from everybody else in my field, but also I just realized what my quote unquote secret sauce was. And I. It makes so much sense now that I'm thinking about it. But in the past, like when I was trying to really dive into this mid luxury market and I was about to triple my prices, I was terrified to do it. But then I just created this unique pricing system that took all the drama out of it. And my friends would message me and be like, how did you triple your prices? Like we can't even raise our prices$500. And so I would tell them, oh, this is what I'm doing. And then after a certain amount of weddings, like you raise it. But this is how you position your packages now. That was the part that I think I did differently than anybody else was. I understood value-based pricing. And of course you need your minimum profit base pricing, which is basically what you need to cover. Your personal and business expenses pay. You pay the bills. All of that, and of course contribute to savings if you can. And then after having that base number of okay, like my lowest package can't go below this number based on my hourly rate and what I provide. But then I was able to position it in a way that couples really saw the value. And I was able to do that all the way to 10 K without drama. And I really thought when I rebranded and tripled my prices that there was gonna be a long lull. People were gonna be like, oh, I don't know. Wow. Like her price is really rose, or she shot my friend's wedding and now I can't afford her. But they stretched their budget to work with me. They saw the value in what it is that I offered and I feel like they just connected with my brand. They connected with my website, they connected with me. And I remember, one of my brides was actually she was a guest at another couple's wedding that was$3,000 less than what she paid for me. And she was like, she told her husband, I'm sorry, but non-negotiable. We're hiring Aurora. You just, we have to. She said, you're the highest investment for our wedding. She's but I already know that I'm not gonna regret it and I'm gonna love my images. I'm gonna love you. I feel like I already know you. And where do I sign? And I was nervous to get on a call with her.'cause I was like, what was the referral? It was this person's wedding. This person was way lower than my new pricing. And she paid it in without hesitation. Crazy to me. And so that's what led me to believe that price position. It's not just about your prices, it's about your positioning. It's about the way that you showcase the value and also what you put inside of each package matters. Like when I was doing these pricing audits and I had about four or five of them in a week I remember saying the same thing to every single person. What is the difference? Why am I paying$2,000 for just another hour or two? They all include the same thing. There's no reason for me to book the highest package. That just means I buy another hour or two. What you put in a value-based pricing model is probably the most essential part of the booking process because everything is gonna go under psychology. Everything's gonna be under the pricing psychology umbrella. And so when people are looking at things, they are comparing the options. There's a saying of like, how do you get somebody to spend more on something that already feels so expensive on its own? You put it next to something lower price, and then that's called anchoring, right? So anchoring to the middle. But what I have done and what I've taught my students is actually to anchor the highest package, and the highest package is if you can do that. Then you have mastered pricing psychology, and so that is one of the first things that we do is like after we figure out your minimum number that you need to charge per package or your hourly rate or whatever works best for you. Then we're going to anchor your prices and make the highest package the most appealing. That way it just takes so much less drama out of raising your prices. And so the first thing that I do when my students enroll and we hop on a one-on-one intensive, is that we map out where their pricing goal is, what they've charged in the past, where they want to go, what they want to offer, and where they see themselves in the next 12 months of working with me and. That pricing structure is what's gonna carry them through the rebrand. It's what's gonna carry them as their marketing.'cause they're saying to themselves, I only need X amount of inquiries. If I launch this rebrand, I will be confident in myself and what it is that I have to offer to stand behind this new higher end pricing. And We've helped so many students make six figures in 12 months, and some of'em have even made six figures in less than 12 months. But the point is like they're usually at a point where they're made their 30 to 50 K in revenue already, but they're stuck at the same pricing and they're like, okay, I have goals. I wanna start a family. I just want my weekends back. I wanna travel. Whatever your reason is, you don't even have to validate it. It's just figure out what that reason is, and that's gonna be the compass of where you go in your business and it's gonna basically drive you. So learning that pricing, packaging, positioning, psychology, like that was my secret sauce. We're really gonna lean into that for the rebrand of this new program. And it's gonna be 80% sales driven, which is my bread and butter. But I really leaned on marketing'cause a lot of people are like, oh, I wanna get more inquiries. So I did so many marketing trainings. But now we're stepping into sales. I wanna help so many wedding photographers build profitable businesses without having to book 30 plus weddings. I was at a point where I had two kids, my son was a newborn, and I booked 12 weddings and it was the most peaceful, beautiful thing. Everything was outsourced and I was able to be a fully present mom. And don't get me wrong, like being a stay at home working mom is nothing to sneeze at. It is actually harder than being a stay at home mom because you have to manage between taking care of your child and then deciding to answer emails, and then balancing calls and attending calls and all of these other things around raising a child. But it's definitely possible and I'm learning more ways that you can actually balance motherhood and business on your own terms, your own way, and it's such a beautiful. Beautiful thing. I honestly do think it's a privilege, but it's a learned privilege. If you invest in a program that teaches you right off the bat how to cut corners and just skip right to the meat and potatoes, the bread and butter, all of the food references, you realize, oh, I actually don't have to mess around and figure out for three plus years aimlessly wasting time, wasting money and burning out. I can just get right to it, set it up perfectly and strategically and get to work. Scale it and do whatever it is that you wanna do, whatever that end goal is. So many things that I've learned about that is we are really leaning into pricing and sales for this program. And we're gonna be doing a sales workshop, which I'm so excited about. We're going to reenact a sales call. And play both sides. I'm gonna be the bride and my students are going to be the photographer, and we're just gonna be diving into like different kinds of objections and you're just gonna watch live like what a possible client call can look like and how to be prepared for all the things that come up. And then also really just practice the sales script that we give our students, but also coming up with your own way of explaining how it is that you do things. And then you'll have the confidence, by the next call because you'll have that training and you can just watch it. But so excited about that. It's so fun. The trademarks for the programs will be submitted next week, and I did a trademark search and he was so fast, less than a week, and then he already is ready to submit the trademarks in another week. So we've just really been moving along. And then next week I am working on the website and that's my favorite part. That's the part I was looking to the most, to be honest with you. There's something about website design and maybe it's'cause it was my major, but I love it. I used to code websites in high school guys. I would come home from school and my mom was like, what are you doing? The computer? I was like, oh, I'm just building a website from scratch. Don't mind me. This is normal. This is what normal high schoolers do. But yeah, and we're just getting things ready. We're getting things going along, planning content, changing all of the curriculum to be on brand because if there's one thing that I'm gonna do is I'm gonna be on brand. The only thing next, is to tell you that we are moving to circle, and I don't know if you're familiar with community based platforms, but we have been on Slack for about a year or two, but we originally started on Circle, so I started on Circle about three years ago when we first launched this program, it was in Slack. And then we went to circle and then I was freaking out.'cause I thought the engagement died. But really it was a smaller group and you can't expect 10 people to be chatting it up every single day. So now that we are almost at 50 girls, I. It's time to move back to circle with all of their automations, their very on-brand community. They've added so many features, so many things, and I'm really excited because they have this new like gallery channel where everyone can post like their favorite images and I really want to have something community-based set up like that. So I just have lots of ideas and they don't stop. Honestly, I would love for the ideas to stop so I can actually rest and not wake up at five in the morning ready to go. But that is where we are. So many things coming. We are changing the name of our concepts, so the brand story will change and you will know because it will be the new, relatively tied to the new name of the program. So all of our concepts are gonna change. It's gonna be cleaned up and everything is gonna be like a room. All of the modules would be like a room and then you would just focus on that room to go to the next room. So excited. I'm trying not to say too much, but I get so carried away. But yeah, so that's what we've been working on so far in the rebrand. And obviously I need to work on my Instagram grid and, scheduling out some reels. I have finalized half of my masterclass. We're actually going to be comparing a couple of marketing campaigns.'cause I love doing a marketing campaign with every single masterclass that I do. And we're also gonna be walking through this new high-end pricing structure. So it's going to be more of like a masterclass. We're gonna invite you to the new program, but also I want some done with you, done for you kind of thing. So I might be doing some pricing audits. If you come live, I'm gonna show you what a high-end pricing structure package looks like and. Of course Frank from Father of the Bride is going to make all the appearances because he was a five-figure wedding planner, a very high end five figure wedding planner. And so he will always be my reference and of course, maybe some other pop culture references to any wedding movies that I absolutely adore. And yeah, so that is my yapper episode of the rebrand series and I am going to actually, hang up my yearly sticker calendar and maybe start journaling a little bit and designing some things and tapping into my creativity, which has really been what started all this in the first place. The second to last week of December, I started journaling and really getting to this like junk journaling, but like aesthetically pleasing journaling with these fancy hand-drawn stickers and these calligraphy pens. I've been playing with calligraphy, but I'm doing it my way. I don't like to follow rules. That's just me. So I've just been using my left-handed abilities and I've been using calligraphy, and that's when the idea for this. Whole program switch, name, everything happened. And from there we have just been skyrocketing into this new allure, Rochelle, this new X and Y program and yeah. Okay. I'm gonna stop yapping and I'm gonna get off, but. I hope you're having amazing week and I will see you in the next episode. So excited. I hope you guys have been loving all of my friends and guest experts on the podcast. They have been so great. I actually have about eight more scheduled for the summer, so don't worry. We are not gonna ghost like we did last summer. I really. Feel bad about that. Still ghosting you guys for about two or three months, but I also needed a break. But this time I'm gonna be more intentional. I'm gonna make better choices. Okay. All right, I'll see you guys next episode. Bye.

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Alora Rachelle

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